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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22865017">Living Alive</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/GinaRogers/pseuds/GinaRogers'>GinaRogers</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Dark Measures [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>ATEEZ (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Fantasy, And Mamamoo, And TXT, BTS makes cameos, Everyone is friends somewhat, Gen, Kind of dark, Monsta X here too, Not In Chronological Order, Pirates, Probably some other groups too, Rebels, Snippets, Super Soldier Serum, but lots of feels, super heroes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 06:09:24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>15,974</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22865017</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/GinaRogers/pseuds/GinaRogers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Seonghwa was the last to join them. He hadn't wanted the cure, he hadn't wanted to take part in the war, and he certainly hadn't wanted to be a part of whatever these rebels had in store for him. He'd heard the rumors: neither the government nor the rebels treated those with abilities fairly--and anyone blessed with survival and useful powers could never live a free life again.<br/>But, Seonhwa also hadn't wanted to die...and that was apparently the limiting factor when Hongjoong ordered San and Mingi to shoot him up full of super-serum. Despite everything, getting to know and work with his seven other teammates, he wasn't unhappy.<br/>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br/>Really just snippets from everyone's point of view as they fight in the ATZ Rebel Squad</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>OT8 - Relationship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Dark Measures [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1643578</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1 - Intro and Other Stories</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Yeosang awoke when he felt the presence of someone that wasn’t one of his roommates. He felt them just outside the edge of his range, lurking. Trying not to alert the newcomer that he was awake, Yeosang slowly opened his eyes, glancing at the alarm clock on the chest of drawers at the end of the room. He couldn’t read it. What were supposed to be bright green numbers were dimming into the black of the shadows. He glanced toward the window, attempting to peer at what should be moonlight filtering in through the cheap blinds, but before his eyes it seemed as if even that silvery light was fading and dimming into nothing.</p><p>As Yeosang watched the room fall into a darkness he had never before seen, he panicked, abandoning his plan to not alert the newcomer of his consciousness, and instead started harshly kicking off his sheets and reaching out to Yeonjun in the bottom bunk next to him. Before he could utter a sound however, the intruder stepped further into Yeosang’s range and he froze, his right arm hanging out in the air over the side of his bed. He slowly turned his head to see two gold eyes staring at him, growing larger as they neared. The hairs on the back of his neck stood as he subconsciously observed that while he could clearly see the glowing gold eyes, they didn’t seem to emit any light into the darkness.</p><p>The only thing stopping Yeosang from waking the others was what he could now sense from the intruder. The man held a lot of sadness, a lot of resignation—but those seemed like more constant and lasting emotions the man had held on to for a long time. On his surface, he was emitting calm reassurance, curiosity, and the tiniest flicker of hope, of possibility. There was nothing malicious emanating from his core.</p><p>When the gold eyes stopped by his bedside and ducked under the top bunk, Yeosang finally unfroze and shifted into a more proper sitting position on his bed. The man spoke with an unexpectedly deep voice.</p><p>“Kang Yeosang, I’m Kim Taehyung. I need you to field dress and quietly pack your things. Which of your roommates is Jung Wooyoung?”</p><p>Yeosang stared at the gold eyes for a second before raising his arm and pointing at the bunk above Yeonjun’s. Though he couldn’t see his own arm, the eyes followed his motion and bobbed up and down.</p><p>“Listen to me, Yeosang-ah. It’s okay.” More reassurance and a little bit of desperation seeped off of Kim Taehyung as he moved around the beds to wake Wooyoung.</p><p>The Kim Taehyung. Why was he in the trainees’ dorm waking Yeosang and Wooyoung? Of the seven members of one of the government’s most elite teams, exactly none of them truly spent any amount of time at the trainee facility. They were busy fighting rouge or rebel squads, capturing criminals, spreading propaganda for the government, and sharing the cure that gave them their abilities. Trainees now were constantly compared and measured up against how Bangtan had been when they went through boot camp and then forced to study their current successes in hopes to one day be as great as them. That one of them was here, sneaking into the dorm and asking Wooyoung and Yeosang to stowaway in the middle of the night, was suspicious to say the least.</p><p>Nevertheless, Yeosang found himself doing as the older boy asked. When he and Wooyoung had their boots on their feet and their backpacks on their shoulders, Taehyung lifted a dimly golden hand motioning them to follow. The moonlight was beginning to filter back through the window, and the green clock numbers once-again were alit as the Bangtan member slipped out the door. Yeosang met Wooyoung’s confused (and slightly scared) eyes before he shrugged, and they followed.</p><p>In the hallway, the two trainees did a double take at seeing another member of Bangtan guarding the dormitory doors. Yeosang felt surprise and slight apprehension flood Wooyoung and mix with his own emotions as they recognized Park Jimin giving them a mischievously squinty smile. As they drew closer, Yeosang analyzed Jimin. Like Taehyung, he was sad and resigned, but his surface emotions were both more optimistic and tediously careful. His smile didn’t fade as he gazed at the trainees. Without a word, he turned around and was about to push open the front doors, Taehyung standing behind the younger boys and guiding them forward.</p><p>Yeosang would have blindly followed, their emotions didn’t bode anything harmful, but Wooyoung was wary and stubborn. He put his hand on Yeosang’s shoulder and stopped, almost glaring back at Taehyung. “What do you want with us?”</p><p>Taehyung’s eyes, now a dark brown, gazed above their heads at Jimin before he replied. “We’ll explain once we’re off military grounds. It’s okay though, we’re trying to help.”</p><p>Wooyoung snorted. “So, we just waltz outside, past the guards and walls and trust you? Where’s our petty officer? Do you have written orders for stealing two trainees?”</p><p>Taehyung waived his hand and Yeosang felt an emotional equivalent of an amused eyeroll. “Don’t worry about the guards, Jimin is here. We have orders from our Hyung and higher clearance than your petty officer. But we need to get moving—don’t you want to be liberated?”</p><p>Yeosang met Wooyoung’s eyes again. What were they being liberated from?</p><p>Jimin’s optimism started increasing as he turned around again murmuring a cheerful “Come on.”</p><p>Yeosang found himself wanting to follow Jimin, he didn’t spare a look back at the dorm and everything he was leaving behind, rather he was solely focused on following the older boy as silently as possible. As they made their way through the shadows of the military buildings, he noticed Jimin’s optimism increasing again, escalating at an exponential rate, it was almost blinding to sense, but something kept Yeosang from questioning the Bangtan member. Before he knew it, they were at the electric fence 500 feet before the tall, stone wall surrounding the military base. They hadn’t passed any guards, not searchlights crossed their paths, and as Jimin walked up to a section of the fence, looking pensively at the wires, Yeosang realized the true nature of his ability.</p><p>Abilities were complicated, fickle things, and while the whole world knew on a basic level what each member of Bangtan’s ability was, understanding it was so much harder. How could anybody, whether they were given the cure or not, explain and grasp how the medicine evolved and manifested into an ability in a person? Especially when it was different for everyone, and the intricacies of how they worked were never consistent.</p><p>Yeosang contemplated what he learned about the two Bangtan members in the last hour. He had heard Kim Taehyung could control light. But he would never have interpreted that as being able to snuff out all light in the dorm room, as preventing his glowing eyes from glowing, and lighting is own hands with and interior flame. He had heard Park Jimin was lucky. But that was such a simplification. If Park Jimin believed in what he wanted, he got it.</p><p>Yeosang didn’t want to compare it to mind control, he of all people knew the difference between complete control and just having a compelling influence on someone. But he felt as if this efficient excursion outside the base was in all manipulated by Park Jimin.</p><p>The older boys lead Wooyoung and Yeosang deep into the woods until they reached an old, abandoned railroad track. The two Bangtan members plopped down on the cold steel, Taehyung grabbing a stick and using it to gouge out the thick mud that had accumulated between the grooves of his boots.</p><p>Wooyoung ever-so-slightly brushed his shoulder against Yeosang’s as they warily made their way to sit on the train tracks. Jimin gave them another small smile. He seemed to be in a pleasant mood, peaceful, and Yeosang felt that there was a bit of nostalgia for this spot in the woods.</p><p>“Our Seokjin-hyung, you know his ability?”</p><p>Yeosang swallowed. “He can see the future.”</p><p>“Yeah. He saw you two.”</p><p>Wooyoung stiffened beside Yeosang, but they both just gazed at Jimin, as he continued.</p><p>“Whatever was going to happen to you, you would have had to leave anyway. He wanted to spare you, I think, asking us to get you out early. He says you’re important.”</p><p>Taehyung looked at them again and Yeosang had to suppress a shiver at the dark eyes. For whatever reason, the unnatural glowing eyes from back at the dorm were less intimidating than his normal gaze.</p><p>“Jin-hyung thinks a lot about speeding up, or changing, the future. All of Bangtan discusses it before deciding to act on something he sees. He’s also usually never wrong, so we think you’ll be okay.”</p><p>Wooyoung has a hint of a growl to his voice as he bites out, “You think we’ll be okay? Be okay for what? What are we supposed to do now?”</p><p>Jimin points his right arm out. “The railroad runs from the northeast to the southwest. It’s been abandoned for more than fifty years, so you should be safe. You can stay the night in the cave about twenty feet behind us, around the outcrop of rock. In the morning, head southwest and search for a guy named Hongjoon.”</p><hr/><p> </p><p>Seonghwa bit his lip as he curled tighter around himself. The rubble was painfully digging into his ribs, and a particularly sharp stone was poking his left cheek. He tried to shift and inch his way toward ruins in front of him, but his chest and stomach burned with each movement.</p><p>His city, his home, had been blasted to bits by some government team with highly destructive abilities. He had been walking home from his part-time job at the movie theater when the sirens went off, signaling the attack. The town was too close to rebel territory and suspected of giving aid and supplies to the rouge troops, and at 4:38 pm today, the government had had enough.</p><p>Seonghwa knew he needed to get to shelter, meager as the blasted building was, before the foot soldiers found him and decided to kill him or give him the cure. But every writhe across the gravel made his chest ache as more blood would spill over his arm. He tried to sit up, but whatever abdominal muscles he had that would allow him to do so were torn and useless. He used his legs to try and push himself forward, but that just caused more pain, and he cried out. He had to just lay there for a few minutes to try and think around the pounding of his head and throbbing of his veins.</p><p>He opened his eyes again to see a pair of dusty black boots too close to his face. The boots moved back and then he saw knees and then hands as they rolled him over and Seonghwa was looking at the smoky sky and a boy around his age with a wide brimmed hat sitting low on his head and a black mask he was removing from his face.</p><p>Seonghwa tried to breath in too deep and felt a shard of his ribs dig into his lungs, and he wanted to cough but that would only hurt worse and he wanted to breathe but that was what hurt him in the first place.</p><p>The boy above him was talking to him, hands on is face and lightly tapping his cheek, and his kind eyes giving Seonghwa a panicked stare. Seonghwa tried to reign the pain in enough to hear him.</p><p>“Hey, hey take it easy. You’re okay. Just breathe lightly.” The boy looked up in the distance before yelling, “San! Bring a cure kit.”</p><p>When the words registered in his mind, Seonghwa painfully jerked. “No. You…kill me.”</p><p>The boy looked at him with large eyes. “No! You’re not going to die.”</p><p>Another person kneeled down next to him, opening a black box with two blue stripes running around it. Seonghwa let out a snarl with energy he didn’t know he had. “I don’t want it.”</p><p>The first boy rested his hand on the top of Seonghwa’s head, “It’ll help you, save you. It’s not that bad. I know people say it hurts, but its not as bad as they make it to be.”</p><p>“I—don’t want t-to be some government dog.”</p><p>Two perplexed faces stared back at Seonghwa. The one with the mask still on cut his eyes toward the other. “Do we look like the government, man? We like to think we’re the good guys.”</p><p>The first boy looked imploringly at Seonghwa. “Don’t you have family? Don’t you want to live? You’ll still be you, even if—”</p><p>“Mingi,” the masked one cut in, “if he doesn’t want it, we should just try and make him comfortable.”</p><p>“No, no, we can’t do that. San, he’s—I think he’s the eighth of us. We can’t just let him die.”</p><p>Seonghwa felt blood spray gently across his lips as he tried to cough again, and he would have curled around his himself if a third person hadn’t come up on his other side and held his right shoulder down. The newcomer took off his face mask and his black hat, revealing a strange, bronzed mullet haircut.</p><p>“Listen to me,” he said, sharp eyes boring into Seonghwa. “You don’t have to be afraid. The cure won’t hurt you; it won’t take away your humanity, it won’t addict you to your power. People do that to people, not the medicine, and we won’t let that happen, okay?”</p><p>He shook his head. The other boy was lying. Everyone that was given the cure eventually went insane. A slap to his cheek again made him open his eyes, he hadn’t known he closed them.</p><p>“You are dying. You are twenty years old and dying.” The boy’s hand lifted up the movie theater lanyard and nametag that had been in his right pocket and somehow made it through the attack. “Seonghwa, do you want popping popcorn for rude customers to be your greatest success in life?”</p><p>Seonghwa wanted to roll his eyes but felt if he did, they’d get lost in the back of his head. “No, I-I want—”</p><p>A hand landed painfully on his bloodied chest. “Then we won’t let you die. Give it to him.”</p><p>He felt the prick of a needle on his neck, shooting icy pressure through his veins. Another prick and Seonghwa wanted to gasp at the pain but found he couldn’t move his lungs anymore and found himself falling into deep, dark black.</p><hr/><p> </p><p>Jongho was currently re-evaluating which of his hyungs had the coolest ability. Some, like Hongjoong, San, or himself had flashy abilities. Some were impressive in their own way, like Yunho’s, and Wooyoung’s. Some he knew were difficult, like Seonghwa’s. But Mingi’s and Yeosang’s were usually so quiet and subtly useful.</p><p>He watched as Yeosang leveled his even gaze at the military officer holding a gun to Jongho’s head. This was just supposed to be a quick sweep through the small town’s outdoor market, but somehow, they had ended up in an alley, with a low-powered super strength military dog trying to arrest Jongho and brainwash him into joining the government. Jongho still had his left hand in his pocket, gripping on to a cylindrical battery, but he hadn’t a chance to defend himself before the burly man had caught up to him and forced him into this position. He felt stupid and inadequate. But he felt scared too.</p><p>Jongho noticed the officer’s hand with the gun started shaking, and he was worried he might accidentally pull the trigger, and he wanted to know what Yeosang was doing to the guy and if he could tone it down a bit before Jongho was dead.</p><p>But he felt a well of calm and reassurance from Yeosang spill into is being. An emotional “its okay” message that soothed his racing heart. The man behind him was fully trembling now, and Jongho felt tears drip into his hair from where he kneeled.</p><p>“Stop it!” The officer bit out. He let go of Jongho’s hair.</p><p>Yeosang didn’t say anything, but slowly, Jongho felt the cool metal of the gun drag away from his head. Yeosang sparked a sense of urgency within Jongho and he scrambled up and over to his hyung, turning and watching with wide eyes as the officer raised the gun to his own head. The man had a devastated look on his face, eyes wide and black, mouth twisted in a terrible grimace, and tears silently running down his face. Oh, and he had just peed in his pants.</p><p>“Yeosang,” Jongho whispered. “Maybe we should…he’s just a desk dog. In a backwater town. Trying to do his job.”</p><p>The man cried out, his hand shaking even worse as he gripped the gun at his head.</p><p>Yeosang’s tone was flat when he answered Jongho. “He was going to kill you. For a promotion that wouldn’t even get him out of this backwater town.” His eyes cut to Jongho’s face. “We kill scum like him all the time, why spare this one?”</p><p>Jongho bit his lip. Normally, Yeosang understood everyone. He could look at what one was feeling and just know what they mean and what they need. He didn’t like being confused by his teammates. Analyzing himself, Jongho could see why Yeosang was confused. He didn’t understand everything he was feeling himself. But Yeosang, was hurting the man. It wasn’t in a fight, with guns blazing and abilities clashing, it was in a quiet alley with no one around, and it wasn’t fair.</p><p>Yeosang snorted. “It wouldn’t have been fair to you either, had he killed you.”</p><p>But what Yeosang was doing to the man. He was crowched on his elbows and knees now, one hand tangled in his hair and the other still struggling with the gun.</p><p>“He still has a choice. He just has to separate mind and heart and he can resist himself.”</p><p>After listening to the man cry some more, Jongho knew he couldn’t let him die though. Not this way. Maybe if it had been quick, like in a battle, but this wasn’t right. He tried to let go of his apprehension, worry, and shock. He focused on calm, and pleasant, and love.</p><p>“This isn’t you, Hyung. I think you’re influencing yourself with the negative emotions. I-I think, you need to separate mind and heart, and focus. I’m okay. Please.”</p><p>Yeosang stared at him for another moment before easing back his influence on the man. The officer dropped the gun and passed out. Jongho felt his chest grow warm with an influx of gratefulness and sorrow and love from Yeosang.</p><hr/><p> </p><p>Mingi remembered when he and Wooyoung played hide-and-seek for six hours a couple of months ago. The other boy would turn invisible or turn San or Jungho invisible and they would all hide. Mingi would find them. Hongjoong saw the fun in the game, but also the training, and soon everyone on the team was playing and Mingi was stretching his sixth sense as far as he could to find them. Invisible or not, he could walk right up and put his arm around them (or accidentally punch San in the nose).</p><p>Sometimes he would just search for them in the map in is head and think <em>there</em>. Others, he would open his eyes and see what they see. He could practice in a mirror, or a bowl of water and find an image of his teammates doing what they were doing at that exact time. When he was asleep, he could find them in their dreams, unable to be seen or heard, just able to observe. He had branded their presence into the map in his mind like seven little stars, shifting into various constellations as they moved around each other.</p><p>If one of them got lost, if one of them was taken, Mingi knew he could find them. During missions and battles, he could keep tabs on them. It was the biggest comfort to himself; he was never alone. He knew Yeosang shared that sentiment, they could both generally always sense the other members and they were never alone.</p><p>But at the moment, Mingi was entirely alone. He had always been the one to find, and now he was the one lost. The others must have been so used to it being easy to find each other when Mingi could just lead them there, but now it was Mingi who was gone.</p><p>Eighteen days. He passed the time by watching the flickering starlight in his mind as his teammates frantically searched for him. Once he projected them into the water bowl his captors brought him daily, but the sight of Yunho and San made him so incredibly sad he almost cried. Not only did they look close to tears as they miserably sat scrolling through news articles and police records of organizations that captured and experimented on the abilities of the cured, but just seeing their faces made him miss his friends so much he could hardly stand it.</p><p>The scientists studying him now were not the most terrible. The tests at least weren’t painful, just tedious. Find this. Find that. Try to make them hear you. Try to make them do something. Only when he couldn’t perform was he punished, either by hit or by dinner skipped. Which, because he had no control over actual people, he was just an observer, was relatively often.</p><p>When he couldn’t meet their expectations, they started drugging him. A lot of the time the drugs just made him sick. Some of the time he got so high on the power boost, he felt like he could cast his mind to different dimensions. The latter were always worse because after recovering from the drug he would always feel slightly less sane.</p><p>This was one of the times it actually affected his ability. He was laying on the metal bed jittering, or shivering, or both. No scientists were in the room, just the monitoring machines, and he guessed this was going to be another long day judging by that and the fact that the drug was being given by drip rather than syringe.</p><p>He was trying to calm himself by watching the seven stars in the map in his head. But there were only seven. He frowned because that was wrong. Hongjoong always said eight makes one team. He zoomed in on the seven stars, determining over and over who each one was. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Where was Eight? Someone was missing. Mingi felt his heart clench and the jittering got worse. It was his job to find them. He always found any lost member of their team.</p><p>In the beginning, when he first met Hongjoong and Yunho, they were the first ones to show up on his map in his head. Maybe it was some barely-there section of his ability that was precognitive, but he knew that there would be eight members and he had to find them all. As he met each of them, a new star would bloom on the map in his head and form another part of the constellation. But he must’ve been slacking off before he came to this facility, because he knew there were supposed to be eight stars and there were only seven. He felt terrible, he had abandoned one that was supposed to be on the team.</p><p>Mingi watched the stars for a while longer.</p><p>Sometime later, it dawned on him. The eighth member was already found. It was him. Well, he wasn’t found because right now he was lost but at least he didn’t need to worry about another eighth member wandering around out in the world. It was him.</p><p>More time later, Mingi thought: <em>if it bothers you so much, just put yourself on the map too</em>. But he was too tired. The drip of the drug had stopped, and the jitters slowed while the shivers increased, and his brain felt fried. The scientists disconnected him from the machinery and wheeled him back toward the cells. He couldn’t stand on his own, he was woozy, and he knew his muscles had atrophied from lack of use and proper nutrition. So, he just let himself be unceremoniously dropped onto the thin bedroll on the ground and focused on the seven stars until he fell asleep.</p><p>The next morning, Mingi felt better and he was hard at work thinking. How did he put himself on the map in his head? The others just showed up when he met them. Did he need to introduce himself? <em>Hi, me. I’m me.</em> Nothing changed. Maybe he needed some big self-realization <em>this is the real me</em> moment. Go find himself. He kept trying. <em>Hi, me. I’m me. </em></p><p>Two days later, Mingi was back on the metal bed with a drip in his hand running another drug through his veins. The scientists had talked amongst themselves (never to him, but it was okay, he wasn’t alone) that last time there had actually been some activity from this concoction of chemicals, and today they had upped the potency.</p><p>He wasn’t just jittery or shivery, he was tearing apart at the seams. He had to squeeze his eyes shut or they would roll around in his head looking and focusing on things he didn’t really see or understand. He had to clench his fists, or he would scratch at the drug flowing through his veins. Mingi could barely focus on the seven stars and he felt so much more lost than he had in a long time. After puking for the fourth time, the scientists ended the session early, pulling out the needle in his hand and wheeling him back to his cell. Mingi couldn’t feel relieved. He just felt terrible.</p><p>When Mingi was finally coming down, but still riding the extra energy that the drugs gave him, he pulled the bowl of water they had given him much earlier in the morning toward him. It scraped across the stone floor, spilling some, but he got it to the edge of his bedroll without too much effort. Propping himself up on his shaking elbows to peer into the bowl was the hard part.</p><p>He stared at his own reflection, not recognizing the boy in the water, before brushing the uncomfortable thought away and focusing. It felt like it had been a long time since he’d done this. He wanted to see his team, his family. All seven of them. He flicked through each of them like a record on replay, not processing what they were doing or where they were, he was just looking.</p><p>Suddenly, Mingi felt anger burst out of him and he yelled. “I’m right here, you fools! I’m right here!”</p><p>He was tired of being alone. After crying some more, Mingi looked back at the bowl only to see the map in is head was now the map in the water.</p><p>He sighed, drying his tears and murmuring, “Hongjoong, please come get me. I hate it here. Just find me.”</p><p>To Mingi’s immense surprise and relief, he watched as an eighth star bloomed on the map in the water, and on the map in is head, and he felt it glowing brighter and brighter like a beacon as it intertwined with the rest of the constellation.</p><p>It wasn’t twelve hours later that Mingi felt them as they tore through the building. He had felt Wooyoung first, the other boy probably invisible, sneaking in and unlocking all outside doors. In came San and Jongho on the offense, taking down any super powered scientists. Within seconds, Hongjoong was outside his cell door, vibrating fast enough that he was able to pop it off its hinges.</p><p>Their leader’s eyes were wide and pained as he stared at Mingi lying on the bedroll against the wall opposite the door. Then he was helping him sit up, hugging him, whispering apologies and reassurances. Yunho met them in the hallway, his face pale and lips thin but his arms steady as Hongjoong situated Mingi on the tall boy’s back. Yeosang and Wooyoung passed them next, both giving him gingerly hugs and relieved smiles full of so much love before going to release the few other captives. San and Jongho greeted them next, a path of destruction lay behind them, but when they laid eyes on Mingi the wild fervor in their eyes died as they too gave him a hug. Last was Seonghwa. The oldest didn’t turn immediately when they grew nearer. His left hand was on one of the scientist’s cheeks, energy flowing from the man and into Seonghwa. When he had taken enough from the man, he released him, and almost jumped in surprise at the presence of Hongjoong, Yunho, and Mingi. He whispered an apology before coming over to also give Mingi a hug. He took a glove off of his right hand and rested it on Mingi’s forehead and the energy flowing into his tired cells was one of the best things Mingi had ever felt.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Sometimes, San felt like a real badass.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>POVs in this chapter: San, Hongjoon, Wooyoung</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sometimes, San felt like a real badass. This was his first mission with Hongjoong, Yunho, and Mingi, and if he said so himself, he was doing pretty well. Originally, they were supposed to be stealthy. But one of the government soldiers had highly sensitive hearing and well…literally, nobody in the facility so much as breathed without the guy knowing.</p><p>San smiled under his mask as he knelt down to touch the floor, causing a rolling wave of the tiles to knock the soldiers running toward them off their feet. Mingi at his side guffawed at the looks on their faces as they slid back down the hallway. The two of them turned and ran toward the exit, little black boxes with blue stripes hopping along with them.</p><p>“Oh, man, don’t make me trip over them!” Mingi yelped.</p><p>With a wave of his hand, the cure kits moved to the edges of the hall and went from bouncing to gliding along with them. “Where are the others?”</p><p>“They’re almost to the west exit.” He slipped a small mirror from his long jacket pocket and glanced at it. “Looks like there’s some kind of shockwave ability after them.”</p><p>San rolled his eyes. In the six weeks since he’d met and trained with the rebel squad, he’d learned of Hongjoong’s uncanny attraction for trouble. “Let’s head that way and help, then.”</p><p>Mingi got a slightly faraway look in his eyes and lead them down a passage on the right. “I can’t wait to see their faces when they see how many kits we’ve gotten.”</p><p>A few twists and turns later, San heard yelling and crashing, and they came upon the chaos that was their teammates. Their enemy, a blue-haired soldier in a white combat suit, kept <em>flicking </em>at the ceiling, and a burst of energy would cause slabs to fall down. Fortunately, whatever hit Yunho just shattered without harming him, and Hongjoong was certainly fast enough to avoid the concrete debris. Hongjoong was circling around the soldier, trying to land a punch, but along with the flicking the soldier kept swing his arms out to the side like an octopus, causing a continuous, invisible wave to shield him as he ran.</p><p>Mingi and San jumped into the hall their teammates were coming from, making sure to stay in front of Yunho so they were protected from the shockwaves. A particularly large wave barraged against Yunho’s back, coming from a frustrated soldier’s punch rather than a flick, but it didn’t bother Yunho at all. The collision sent the waves of energy off to the side, denting and chipping at the plaster on the walls. San looked back at the other boy with a raised eyebrow.</p><p>“That doesn’t hurt?”</p><p>Yunho’s eyes curled up above his mask and San knew he was giving a bright grin. “I don’t feel a thing.”</p><p>“What do we do when we get to the exit?”</p><p>“Hongjoong-hyung said to keep running until we lose this guy. He pulverized our van before coming after us.”</p><p>“Easy for him to say,” Mingi broke in. “Are we supposed to run all the way back to Headquarters too?”</p><p>The heavy metal doors to the outside were about 800 feet in front of them and a plan hit San. “Hongjoong-hyung! Can you open the doors?”</p><p>He felt the slightest touch on his shoulder before their leader breezed past them and the doors swung open. San pushed the cure kits forward even more, allowing them to glide far outside into the night. Mingi, Yunho, and he speed up for the exit, distancing themselves as much as they could before they crossed their way to freedom and Hongjoong slammed the doors shut. San quickly laid his hands on the cold metal. <em>Don’t move</em> he commanded.</p><p>Not a second later, a huge shockwave blasted against them, and San felt his knees go weak at the strain of holding them solid. Hongjoong wrapped his arms around San’s chest like he was giving a hug and continued to run. San would’ve protested if another, more forceful wave hadn’t pressed against the doors, causing black spots to appear in his vision.</p><p>“Don’t forget the kits,” Hongjoong murmured. “Hold on a little more and we’ll be far enough away. You’re doing good.”</p><p>San bit his lip, more shockwaves were still pounding at the doors, and he felt like a rubber band stretching too far. The distance between himself and the doors, holding them closed from so far was painfully tedious. In the other direction, he was still shoving the cure kits forward. Maybe he had been too ambitious in taking so many.</p><p>Hongjoong tapped the back of his shoulder when it was safe to let control of the door go. It was much easier to focus only on the kits, and after carrying him for a few minutes more to let him rest, San was set down and had to run on his own. Even with his enhanced strength, stamina, and speed, so much use of his ability weakened him. He pouted at the thought of doing more training.</p><p>Around an hour later, the four of them were resting in a clearing in the woods, waiting for the transport sent from the Rebel Headquarters. They were spread out on their backs, looking at the stars, and around forty blue-striped metal boxes strew around on the ground. Yunho gave a loud huff.</p><p>“What the heck is this, San? Hyung and I stole four! Well, I stole four. Hongjoong-hyung dropped his while trying to fight the shockwave soldier. With this success we’re never going to receive different types of missions.”</p><p>San felt a wicked smile curl on his face, and he rolled to his stomach, pillowing his head on his arms. “Go hard or go home, right?”</p><p> </p><hr/><p>Hongjoong very clearly remembered his time with his mother. She had been one of the first to have received the cure, one of those early, miracle survivors. But she wasn’t a terminally diseased hospital patient nor was she in a near-fatal accident before receiving the medicine. She was a healthy twenty-eight-year old scientist, her genius brain taking her to be one of the prestigious scientists developing the medicine that would bring people back from the edge of death. She wasn’t smart enough to know however, not to inject yourself with the medicine when you weren’t dying.</p><p>She had survived, and developed an ability that she used to benefit the general population for four years before marrying and starting her family. She could speak to the dead.</p><p>Hongjoong remembered in the early years, how he would hear her sobbing at night, his dad would try and comfort her, and it worked only half of the time. He would hear her sobbing during the day too, when people would come to her asking after loved ones. Those who asked almost never had a pleasant story to tell, and their ghosts were absolutely dreadful. Hongjoong didn’t have to see them to know, the haunted, pallid features of his mother’s face as she sipped her tea and spoke with the clients said enough.</p><p>His father left when he was seven, he said Hongjoong’s mom was too depressing, too focused on the dead and not enough on the living. His mom went back to work as a scientist for the government, only helping the dead on the weekends, but he knew her torment was constant. He enjoyed coming home from grade-school to a quiet house, free of the sobbing and depressed clinking of the tea set. Free of an increasingly deranged mother.</p><p>When Hongjoong was nine, he woke up in the middle of the night to a cold hand on his arm, and a dark, crazy-eyed mom pushing a needle through his thigh. Back then, the cure required three concoctions, each one more painful than the last, and giving it to someone healthy had a thirty percent survival rate. <em>Why had she done this? </em>It was hell, lying in his bed for two days while the cure <em>altered</em> him. He had once been told that it speeds up evolution. Later he would learn, that was a lie, no human body would naturally evolve to what the cure changed them into.</p><p>His mom didn’t even stay with him. She left for work in the morning, and again on the second day, ignoring his whines and cries, and it wasn’t until the morning of the third day that Hongjoong felt well enough to get up and make himself breakfast. He remembered being unreasonably ravenous.</p><p>It was exciting, for a nine-year-old rascal, to run faster than anyone and anything. He quit going to elementary school, deciding instead it was much more entertaining to run around the city. His mom was never home anyway to answer the calls from the principal or reprimand him for missing. The other children were just so boring, too. They couldn’t do anything but sit there in their slow lives and drool on their desks.</p><p>He needed to eat a lot. There wasn’t enough food in the house, but he could run fast enough he could steal it from stores and restaurants with no problem. Steal the food, crouch in the alley, scarf it down, and repeat. And every night at home he’d listen to his mother’s cries that turned into screams and fits and tantrums and wonder <em>is this my future? </em></p><p>Three years later, news coverage of one of the government’s first superheroes, G-Dragon, was playing on the television while he was eating his fifth bowl of cereal for breakfast. It was a rare moment that Hongjoong was home, and even rarer that his mom was watching the old tv. There was a big, burning office building, lots of fire trucks, lots of firefighters, and G-Dragon just shows up, flashes a badge, and stands right in front of the building. As close as anyone dared to without a flame-retardant suit. He lifted his right arm and just <em>sucked</em> the fire from the building like a vacuum into his hand. The flames swirled through the air and licked at his skin before settling into an orange haze and then fading into nothing at all. The whole world thought it was beautiful.</p><p>Hongjoong found himself at a library. Studying articles online and watching interviews about G-Dragon. The man had fallen off his skateboard when he was a child, cracked his head, and his parents bravely gave permission for the government to administer the cure. As with all patients who accept the cure and survive, they then belong to the government. He’ll never forget watching the interview with G-Dragon’s parents. His mom had been a pretty lady. Brought to tears with pride for her son.</p><p>“I’m so proud of him. You know, no parent ever wants to lose their child. So, when they said he might have a chance to live with the cure, we absolutely couldn’t say no. But look at him now. To see my boy become such a powerful, capable, young man who can help so many people. The pride is indescribable.”</p><p>Hongjoong ran home faster than he had before. It was a quiet Saturday, the middle of the afternoon, and his mom was sleeping for once, so he couldn’t bring himself to wake her. He waited around a bit, ate some fruit, and some cereal, and a sandwich. But like he had no patience for school, he had no patience for waiting. So he just sat by his mother’s bed and whispered his plan.</p><p>Five hours later he was registered and checked into the nearest military facility as a Class I trainee. He hoped she’d be proud.</p><p> </p><hr/><p>Wooyoung wasn’t terribly nervous for the mission he and Yunho were departing for. It was a simple infiltration and reconnaissance mission of the government’s Military Command Post about 100 miles past the border between Korea and the land the Rebels managed to hold and protect. ATZ’s base patrolled a section of the border, they were the third squad in a spread-out line of eight and were closer to the Command Post than the other squads. It was a dangerous position with little assurance of back up squads as the Rebels were already stretched thin. It made Hongjoong worry a lot, but Wooyoung had to trust in his team’s ability and that the Rebel Headquarters knew what they were doing and had ATZ’s best interest at mind despite constantly asking them to put their lives on the line.</p><p>But for this mission, Wooyoung wasn’t nervous. He was practically made for infiltration. He was however, terrified of what they would find during recon. Headquarters had gotten word from one of their spies of the military planning a possible attack, and Wooyoung and Yunho were sent to verify and steal copies of the orders. Yunho would attend a meeting between government and military officials, and Wooyoung would search the Lieutenant General’s office for records of the orders or plans for attack.</p><p>The van ride was silent as they passed through no-man’s land. They would have to leave it in the woods pretty soon after they crossed the border, unable to risk taking it too near such a large military base, and they would hike the rest of the way.</p><p>Wooyoung leaned his head against the window and would’ve closed his eyes hadn’t Yunho spoken.</p><p>“What was it like being a trainee?”</p><p>Wooyoung slowly raised his head as the question registered and looked at his teammate. Yunho’s hat was still atop his head, but his mask was pulled below his chin, and he had an uncharacteristically sour twist to his mouth as he stared at the dirt road in front of them.</p><p>“You weren’t in the military first? I thought you’d left with Hongjoong-hyung.”</p><p>Yunho gripped the steering wheel tightly before sighing and relaxing. “Nah, my family were refugees. And I don’t think Hyung was there for very long before he left.”</p><p>Wooyoung waited a brief second to see if the other boy would continue with more of an explanation, but when he didn’t, he just swallowed and answered Yunho’s question.</p><p>“It was exhausting. They want to ramp up your stamina to their expectations as quickly as possible, so they work you into the ground. As soon as you’re recovered, you go at it again. They promise pride, and glory, and fame once you pass your final test. They promise you the chance to make a difference once you debut as a hero. I didn’t realize how much bullcrap it was until Yeosang and I had been kicked out.”</p><p>“Kicked out? I thought you just wanted to escape.”</p><p>Wooyoung knew he could trust Yunho. As sure as he knew his blood was red, he knew his teammate deserved his trust. Hongjoong already knew the details of his and Yeosang’s departure from the military, Yunho should know too. “Well…we were both Class II trainees. You know, our abilities aren’t flashy or volatile, but they’re still of use to the government for things other than blowing stuff up. It isn’t until you get to Class IV that the abilities are really mundane. We had passed the first phase of increasing our stamina, into the second phase and by then finally learning skills useful to the type of missions we might take. But one night, two of the members of Bangtan woke us up and stole us away.”</p><p>Yunho jerked a bit. “You’re serious? Who?”</p><p>A laugh burst out from Wooyoung, “It was pretty freaking suspicious. Jimin and Taehyung visiting two lowly trainees in the middle of the night. They said it was a mission from Seokjin.”</p><p>“The one who can see the future.” Yunho’s head bobbed up and down in recognition. “That’s kind of a big deal.”</p><p>Another laugh echoed in the van. “They instructed us to find ‘a guy named Hongjoong.’ I’m guessing all of us are going to be ‘kind of a big deal.’”</p><p>As they pulled the van off the road and covered it with a brown tarp before laying large branches and leaves in an attempt to disguise it, neither of them voiced aloud the words they were both thinking. <em>Let’s hope that doesn’t get us killed.</em></p><p>***</p><p>              The hike was uneventful, but once they drew nearer to the Command Post, Wooyoung grasped Yunho’s shoulder and draped him in invisibility before doing the same to himself.</p><p>Yunho hissed. “I hate that I can’t see you. It makes me nervous.”</p><p>Wooyoung wrapped his hand around the other boy’s wrist. “It’s okay. I can see you. Until we split-up I’ll keep in contact with you. Remember, don’t make any noise, people can still hear you.”</p><p>“Coming from the loudest member of the team. How you manage to stay so quiet on missions, I’ll never know.”</p><p>Wooyoung laughed. “I’ll meet you outside Gate 4 at the tree line. Let’s try and sneak in at Gate 5 though, they’ll have more traffic entering.”</p><p>Yunho grumbled, “One hour, in and out. Don’t be late.”</p><p>After closely tailing a group of patrol soldiers, they made it onto the base. Slipping behind soldiers and staff was easy enough as they entered the largest building centered at the base. Yunho split to go to the right, toward the big conference hall, and Wooyoung went left, searching for a back staircase he could take.</p><p>Once on the third floor, Wooyoung paced up and down the hall, making sure no one was still in their office. Everyone should have been at the meeting that was about to start, but he triple-checked. He started in the Lieutenant General’s office. Jimmying the lock open wasn’t hard, and he was soon quietly rifling through papers and mail left on the woman’s desk and in her drawers. He briefly considered her computer, hoping that he could hack into it well enough to unlock it and not get caught by alerting its security system. He breathed gently on his fingers, praying that the skills he learned as a trainee would be enough.</p><p>Trying to type quietly was tedious, and by the time he passed through the computer’s security and overrides, he was sweating. He inserted a memory stick and downloaded all emails and files, and then wiped the memory of the downloads and logged out. Easy. A few more locked drawers and files to search through.</p><p>The second drawer in the filing cabinet broke open to about fifteen red folders, their tabs clearly organized by date. Wooyoung selected the most recent one and…jackpot. An attack. Four days from now at a town still under the government’s jurisdiction, but there was evidence of it aiding the Rebels. Jingu was close to ATZ’s base, and four days was more than enough time to warn the citizens and get the plans back to Headquarters and help defend the town.</p><p>Wooyoung considered copying key notes from the missive down but decided against it. Hopefully, the orders were within the stolen files on the memory stick, if not, they’d just have to take his word for it. He quickly replaced the red folder and shut the drawer, checking that it re-locked. All the papers and mail were back to how they were, and the computer was asleep as before. Wooyoung gently shut the office door as he left, wincing at the click of the lock, but no one was in the hallway.</p><p>He didn’t run into anyone until he was on the stairs before reaching the first floor. He stopped himself where he was and pressed against the railing. A woman was coming down from the second floor and Wooyoung startled when he recognized her. The leader of another famous government superhero group, Velvet. Irene. She could turn her skin into diamonds and was essentially unharmed by any physical attack thrown at her.</p><p>Wide-eyed, Wooyoung watched as she gracefully stepped past him, and wondered how a fight between her and Yunho would go. He hated to think it, but Yunho’s immovability wasn’t the same as diamond armor, and he pushed the thought out of his mind before he scared himself more. Velvet was a team with more experience than even Bangtan and were definitely just as dangerous. Wooyoung briefly contemplated how he ended up on the opposite side of a war as all of his childhood heroes. He stood there starstruck, terrified, and with a strange ache in his heart wishing for things to be <em>easy</em> before shaking himself and making his way toward the exit.</p><p>He was the first to the tree line, and he settled against the rough bark and closed his eyes to wait for Yunho. He refused to think about what would happen if Yunho didn’t show up on time. His stamina was waning as he kept them both invisible, but he could still manage another twenty minutes or so before he’d start to feel dizzy.</p><p>Luckily, the other boy arrived within another eight minutes, whispering for Wooyoung to show himself and turn off  the invisibility. Smothering his laughter,  Wooyoung grabbed an acorn and tossed it at his teammate’s head. At the look on Yunho’s face, he couldn’t help full out laughing, and immediately dropped the invisibility as he got up and brushed the dirt off of his pants.</p><p>Yunho rolled his eyes before they curled up into half-moons, indicative of the grin under his mask. “What did you learn?”</p><p>“Attack on Jingu in four days.”</p><p>The other boy nodded as they started their hike back to the van. “They’re going to send Monsta X.”</p><p>Wooyoung sucked in a breath and stared at Yunho. “That’s a lot of fire power.”</p><p>“They want to make an example out of the town. This is what happens when you betray us.”</p><p>“Will the rebels come to their aid? Are <em>we</em> going to fight?”</p><p>Yunho was silent for a moment, his eyes pensive. “I don’t think so. They’ll probably just warn the town to have them evacuate and take in the refugees. Its terribly unfortunate but the rebels just don’t have enough strength in numbers or in abilities yet to take an active stand against the government.”</p><p>“They operate more on a ‘steal the fish and run’ mode.” Wooyoung hummed. “They’re barely holding onto the border as it is.”</p><p>Yunho sighed. “One day, the people will be angry, and the government will be gone. Its what my dad used to say. We won’t be rebels forever.”</p><p>***</p><p>It wasn’t just the town of Jingu that was made an example of. Though Hongjoong had dashed toward the mayor of the town as soon as Wooyoung and Yunho delivered the information about the attack, they underestimated the man's cowardice. He had sold his loyalty to the government, contacting them about the impending attack, and pleading for forgiveness and mercy on the town, only to end up making a deal with the devil: him and his family’s safety and relocation for not sharing a word of needing to evacuate to the citizens. The attack occurred two days ahead of schedule, and ATZ didn’t make it in time, only arriving to search for survivors. Jingu was made an example of, and the rebels were seen as a failure for inadequately providing relief and protection for their allies. Trust and morale was low.</p><p>It was a tough situation for the rebels, made especially tough for ATZ personally, as they had rescued who would soon be their eighth squad member, and he was <em>not happy</em> to be there.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>It's Seonghwa! (in case you didn't draw conclusions from the first chapter lol)<br/>I hope this story isn't confusing anyone...</p><p>I thought it might be nice to put who's point of view the various sections of each chapter are in the summary, so I'll try to remember to do that in the summary for each. Thanks for reading!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. ATZ was getting their asses kicked</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>POVs in this chapter: Jongho, Yunho</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>ATZ was, quite literally, getting their asses kicked. Tensions between the government and the rebels were at an all time high, and though the eight members were finally learning how to use their abilities and teamwork to get themselves out of any sticky situations, a full on attack on their own base was not the type of battle they’d had to fight before. Their usual missions of “get in, get out, defend yourselves if you have to” was nothing compared to defending against a surprise attack from Monsta X.  </p><p>Jongho had heard the rumors about the destruction the government team brought. He had seen the aftermath of their attack on Seonghwa’s hometown. He had memorized their abilities, not because the officers at the rebel headquarters required knowledge of all the main government hero teams, but because as a child he had poured over the news articles and comics about the powerful group. They were quite fearsome in the little black-and-white cartoons, and downright terrifying in person. It wasn’t just their element of surprise or abilities that were beating ATZ down though, the older boys worked together like a well-oiled machine, and their years of experience were worth ten times ATZ’s tenacity.</p><p>Hongjoong-hyung was preoccupied with defending against Jooheon, another speedster, but one who matched Hongjoong’s agility with power, and it seemed they were at a stalemate as they fought, though Jonho worried that Hongjoong’s stamina was not as high as the other man’s. Seonghwa couldn’t reach anybody to give them a power boost—he was fighting against I.M, who kept turning himself into water, letting each punch and jab from Seonghwa go right through him.  Yeosang and Mingi were trapped in one of Minhyuk’s illusions, but they were at least giving the guy a hard time, distracting him and preventing him from catching all of ATZ in his dream world, and keeping their rebel team members grounded. Yunho and San had some kind of fragile tag-team plan as they fought against Monsta X’s most destructive members, Kihyun and his explosions, and Hyungwon’s earthquakes. Jongho found himself and Wooyoung separated from the others a bit, and defending against the lightning spilling from the leader, Shownu’s fingertips.</p><p>Jongho initially thought he and Wooyoung were doing okay, the older boy would attack while invisible, and when the tell-tale crackling of electricity would pop in the morning air, Jongho would condense gas between his hands, and shove it at their opponent. The cushion of gas would absorb the electricity, erupting into colorful, glowing plasma and preventing the lightning from reaching its target.</p><p>Shownu had laughed the first time Jonho deflected his lightning. “That is such a beautiful ability. I’ve never met someone so apt to defend against electricity. But plasma is a wild matter, how well can you control it?”</p><p>Jongho felt a twinge in his chest at being complimented by such a well-known hero, but he shoved any pride or preening down—the man was attacking his home and his family. He quietly spoke to Wooyoung instead, who he couldn’t see, but could feel the other boy’s hand gripping his arm right above his elbow.</p><p>“Don’t touch it, Hyung, electrically charged plasma isn’t like magnetically charged plasma—it hurts.”</p><p>Wooyoung just squeezed his arm in acknowledgement.</p><p>Now, Jongho doesn’t know how long they’ve been fighting. But he feels tension between his shoulders and the ache in his temples as he tosses the charged plasma up into the air, away from where it could hurt anybody. He knows Wooyoung is slowing down, not as light on his feet and not as quiet as before. When Shownu lands a hit on Wooyoung (and he’s landed a lot more in the last ten minutes than before), the blond boy gives himself away with gasps and stumbles, and their opponent is unfortunately smart enough to follow the sounds and footprints. Jongho uses his fists as much as he can, he is a natural brawler, but the almost constant flood of lightning is a huge distraction.</p><p>Looking around, Jonho sees that all of his hyungs are struggling. San is on his hands and knees, Yunho has burn marks and bruises, Hongjoong is trembling from exhaustion, and like Wooyoung is too easily being beaten up by his opponent. Seonghwa is pale and grey, irritation streaking across his face as he tries to get around I.M’s fluid form for a chance to touch one of their team members and provide at least some relief from the exhaustion. Yeosang and Mingi have a fevered look in their eyes; they’ve succumbed to Minhyuk’s illusion. Jonho glances at Mingi as he throws a punch into thin air and stumbles and pukes from the disorienting hallucination. Yeosang, on the other hand, has a look of painful concentration on his face as he too stumbles his way blindly toward Minhyuk in another attempt to engage in a hand-to-hand fight.</p><p>ATZ is either going to be captured or killed, and regardless of what the loss of his team, the loss of their fort, would mean for the rebels, Jongho finds he only cares about what happens to his hyungs. All they had done for him, back when he was a leery street rat, back when they went through the most basic of essential training together, back when their base was a home and not a pile of rubble—he has to do something for them now. Fear and desperation are crawling up his throat.</p><p>“Just surrender, kid.” Shownu states. His eyes genuinely plead Jongho to just give up. “You all have put up a good fight, but without the grueling training we’ve done, you don’t stand a chance.”</p><p>Except if they surrender, Hongjoong, Yeosang, and Wooyoung would be executed for military desertion and the rest of them either imprisoned for life or forced through some kind of mind-control to be loyal to the government. Wooyoung appears on Jongho’s left, a dark bruise coloring his jaw where Shownu landed a hit, but his dark eyes glower at their enemy.</p><p>“You’re the maknae, if you ask, they’ll comply. Don’t give up your life for a small rebel fort.”</p><p>The small, stupid idea in the back of Jongho’s mind grows into the framework of a plan. It was dishonorable and dangerous, but wasn’t that what a street rat-turned-rebel was at heart? He glances at Wooyoung again.</p><p>“Get Seonghwa and that stupid water guy over here.”</p><p>Wooyoung gives him a look of consideration, he might have an inkling of what Jongho has planned, but he has enough trust in him to nod.</p><p>“Don’t do anything too reckless, Jongho. Stay sensible.”</p><p>Jongho doesn’t have anything to say to that as Wooyoung disappears again.  He turns to Shownu, who has a hardened look in his eyes. Remorseful yet resigned.</p><p>It’s the first time he’s responding to any of Shownu’s questions or taunts. “I looked up to you as a kid, you know? I read the Monsta X comics. I wanted to be a hero. But that was before I knew the government didn’t care about its people. That was before my parents were turned away at the hospital because they refused to get the cure, even though they were fatally injured in a car accident. The government took them away from me, allowed them to die. I won’t let it take away my new family.”</p><p>Shownu’s expression didn’t change. He had probably heard similar histories from hundreds of others. It only made Jongho’s anger skyrocket. How could someone lose their compassion and sympathy? He brought the gases tighter around his hands and charged at the stoic man. As expected, lightning shot out, and Jongho released his control on the plasma, letting it explode between them.</p><p>It hurt. He let out a cry as a tingling heat raced across his skin. The grass on his left caught on fire as the neon plasma forked and flowed into the air and across the land. But he straightened up and charged again. Blast after blast, the air was filled with smoke and charged with electricity and it looked like the cosmos of space had sunk like a raincloud hanging low in the atmosphere. He heard Hongjoong yelling at him, could sense all his team trying to make their way to his side. Good. He could protect them. He could do it. He hoped he didn’t hate himself after this.</p><p>And…<em>there</em>, was Seonghwa. A look of panicked concern as he and Wooyoung herded I.M toward him. Jongho gave them a warning look, hoping they’d understand and back away as soon as possible. He pulled the gas closer to his skin, and it was like sucking a thick milkshake through a straw, a heavy pressure and effort to not let it go, and his exhausted control over the ions was shoddy, but it was all he could do. He faked a move toward Shownu, waited for the <em>pop pop</em>, stuck his left hand into the lightning, forming writhing plasma, and he <em>twisted</em>, an uncomfortably dark satisfaction settling in his heart as I.M turned to water in anticipation of Jongho’s incoming fist, and electrified plasma ripped through him. The other boy let out a choked scream, liquid form wavering before he turned solid and collapsed.</p><p>“<em>Changkyun!</em>” Shownu gave Jongho a withering glare as he rushed toward his teammate. “X! We’re leaving!”</p><p>ATZ’s opponents gathered tightly around their leader and injured teammate. Shownu let loose a guttural yell and it wasn’t the sound of electricity, but rather the heavy scent of ozone that alerted Jongho to the impending lightning attack. His head spun as he swung around, turning his back to his team and throwing his arms out, feebly compressing as much gas as he could and—</p><p>San was there. San was in front of him, hands on the ground with Seonghwa’s right hand on the back of his neck boosting his power as a wall of dirt and rock rose up in front of ATZ and absorbed the lightning. He watched as Seonghwa fell to his knees, blood streaming from his nose, and San just tip over onto his side, gasping. Yunho and Yeosang staggered toward them to help them up.</p><p>Jongho felt his head lull back and hit something soft, and when he looked, he saw it was Mingi holding him up, his arms trying to support Jongho as he too was falling to the ground. Wooyoung was suddenly in his face, tears shining in his eyes. “I told you, I told you not to do anything stupid!”</p><p>Then there was Hongjoong. His face was a multitude of cuts and bruised colors and his hand was pressed to his side, but the fear and anguish and sense of failure in his eyes as he peered down at him made Jongho want to cry. San and Seonghwa, Yunho and Yeosang joined the other three heads all staring at him, and Jongho then wanted to laugh. What a mess they were.</p><p>He tried to smile, but his teeth felt like they were still buzzing from the electricity that had coursed through him, and his chest felt strangely tight. He could feel…he could feel his heart, and it didn’t feel like it wanted to beat at a normal rhythm. And he was dizzy. He could hear Mingi panicking and saying something about a flickering star in his head, but the vibrations of his voice as Jongo rested against his chest were soothing and he was tired and he closed his eyes.</p><hr/><p> </p><p>Yunho tried not to fidget as he sat across from his father at the dark wooden desk. He had practiced what he was going to say, in front of the mirror and in front of Hongjoong. He had gone over the main points again and again as he fought to plead to the man in front of him not to send ATZ out. They weren’t prepared. Excluding the fact that San had only been with them for three weeks and completed the bare essentials of training within the last two weeks, Hongjoong, Mingi, and Yunho himself were all still so inexperienced.</p><p>So here he was, on behalf of Hongjoong and the rest of his small team, using his position as the man’s son to gain audience with the Vice President of the Rebels. To plead his team’s inadequacy. To protect his team. To sit uncomfortably as his father gazed at him with eyes so similar to his own.</p><p>The Vice President slowly pressed the eraser on the back of his pencil into the paper on his desk, released it, and then squished it down again. The AC in the old building came on with a rattle, and Yunho tried not to show how much it startled him.</p><p>“Yunho…” his father began slowly. “You can withstand an impact equivalent to a bomb and not be fazed. Hongjoong can run one-hundred miles per hour at a leisurely pace. San can shred a building like grated cheese. And Mingi, his strengths may not be so obvious, but he holds the whole universe in his head.”</p><p>Yunho gulped. Of course, his father the uncured Ordinary Man, would look at him and his friends and not understand how they could be anything but infallible.</p><p>“D-dad,” the word felt stale in his mouth. “The kind of people we’ll be up against, they’re also powerful. You watch the news; you know who they are. They’ve also had years of training. We-we’re only eighteen. Hongjoong, nineteen. We don’t have anything but basic knowledge on military tactics, we hardly know anything about manning a fort.”</p><p>“But you have a much better chance than the refugee and civilian soldiers here. Would you rather them die by the hundreds? You can protect them, so why would you let them die?”</p><p>His right hand, resting under his father’s desk on his thigh started trembling. <em>Why would you let them die?</em> Like he had let his mom and younger brother die. He remembered his father the Good Man and his father the Brave Man as their family of four made their way across three-quarters of the country to reach the rebellion. His father was an intelligent man, a history and political science professor, and he cared for his family and knew that what the government was turning into wasn’t at all going to be good. When a twelve-year-old Yunho was diagnosed with a terminal illness, he made the decision that rather than allowing him the cure and subjecting him to mandatary military enlistment, they would escape. His dad had been wise and kind back then.</p><p>“I want to protect them, so badly, I want to help people. But our protection wont last long if we are killed too soon.”</p><p>His father sighed, like Yunho just wasn’t able to comprehend his reasonings. “There won’t be that much activity at your base, it is a new one that the government doesn’t know of the location yet. You’ll be sent on easy missions, similar to the few you completed before San arrived. If you need back-up, we <em>will </em>provide it. Four of our most powerful cured are too precious to risk. But you will have to endanger yourselves for the sake of others. I know that is hard to understand at your age. Your mother and brother lost their lives for you, it is your duty to use that gift, your life and your ability, to risk your life for others.”</p><p>Yunho wanted to both kick his dad in the face and cry. He supposed his father the Kind Man was gone forever. He stood from the cushioned chair and bowed at the waist before speaking.</p><p>“I want to fulfill my duty. I understand the advantage I have, and I understand the responsibility I have. But please, my team members are my best friends. I don’t want them to get hurt. We need a little more time training.”</p><p>His father’s face darkened as he put his pencil down. “Yunho, the rebellion cannot afford to give you more time. You must make do with what you have. They are not your family; they are your co-workers. You are meant to be stronger than this. Besides, most people learn best on the job. You are dismissed.”</p><p>Yunho still stood, staring at his father for a moment, but the man didn’t look back up. He turned on his heel and left without saluting, slamming the door on his way out. Maybe such immature behavior would somehow remind the man that his son was still, after all, a teenager.</p><p>Stopping at the landing on the stairs, he took several deep breaths in. He knew, Hongjoong knew, that Yunho succeeding at earning ATZ more training time was the least likely outcome, but he couldn’t help the crushing feeling of failure. The rebellion stood for everything opposite the government, but sometimes he traitorously wondered how similarly things were run on either side.</p><p>Hongjoong was leaning against the wall under the front staircase leading to the old building, snacking on what looked like beef jerky. When Yunho approached, he looked up with a smile that went from mischievous to reassuring as he interpreted Yunho’s gloomy demeanor.</p><p>“It was a bust?”</p><p>Yunho grunted as he kicked a rock out of his path. “It was a bust. He pretty much said that we’re invincible compared to uncured, and we should be prepared to die for them at any time. I mean, its not like I asked for the cure. I didn’t ask to be special. They’re using us same as the government would have.”</p><p>Hongjoong had a wry twist to his mouth as he finished chewing his jerky. He rested his elbow on Yunho’s shoulder, despite how awkward it was as Yunho was so much taller.</p><p>“There’s good people in the government. There’s good people in the rebellion. Unfortunately, your dad isn’t one of them. You just have to trust that they will eventually prevail and flush out the bad people.”</p><p>“He used to be good.” Yunho grumbled. “He brought up my mom and brother again.”</p><p>Hongjoong just squeezed his shoulder as he removed his elbow to instead throw his arm around Yunho’s shoulders. “Let’s go see Eden, I’m sure he has some helpful advice he can give us last minute.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So...kinda angsty. I hope it wasn't too bad?<br/>Also, I don't know much about Monsta X but they're the heavy hitters out of the government heroes...anyone who is a fan of them, they're not bad guys! Just...on the opposite side. So no, I don't hate them lol. And I haven't forgotten about Wonho!</p><p>Thanks for reading! :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Seonghwa heard the crack of all energy rushing out</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>POVs in this chapter: Seonghwa, Mingi, Wooyoung</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Also...idk might get dark at the end. Not too much (and probably not as dark as it will get) but just a warning sooo<br/>But honestly, why would you read fanfic anyway if it wasn't for some good ol' hurt/comfort<br/>^please don't answer that</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Seonghwa heard the crack of all energy rushing out of the tree. Its leaves were gone, turned brown and crisp before crumbling to dust. Its bark was fragile and grey, and the wood inside had lost its honey color and turned pale. He felt the energy thrumming under his skin like millions of ants all marching and pounding their six legs over every inch of him. It made the hair on the back of his neck rise and he let it seep into his muscles and bones. He could feel another nose bleed start, and he had to tip his head back for a minute. Seonghwa and Hongjoong were separated from the rest of ATZ by about twenty feet, the younger rebels resting and attempting to tend to their wounds, and all of them crowded close to an unconscious Jongho.</p><p>              Their leader was in front of Seonghwa, his right arm crossed over his chest to brace his hand against his left ribs, but it wasn’t an expression of pain on his face, rather frustration and fear.</p><p>“We’re in pieces.” Hongjoong hissed.</p><p>Seonghwa shook his head as he bit into the black leather of his jacket and then yanked a long strip off the bottom before tearing that into three other strips. Moving to wrap it around Hongjoong’s ribs, he tried to reassure the other boy.</p><p>“We’re alive. We just have to make sure we’re okay.”</p><p>“Jongho’s <em>not</em> okay. He needs a doctor, or better, a healer.”</p><p>Seonghwa pulled the bindings tight to give the injured ribs support but tried to leave enough room for Hongjoong to breathe easy. “You’re not going to take him to Headquarters?”</p><p>“No,” Hongjoong sneered. “MMM is about 300 miles North, we’ll head to their base and have Wheein help him. I’ll send a message to Headquarters from there.”</p><p>Thinking it over for a minute, Seonghwa tugged the last strip of leather tightly. “Can you carry him that far?”</p><p>ATZ’s leader sneered again. “I’m not going to <em>not</em> take him. Besides, I think its obvious I need to work on my strength and endurance.”</p><p>Seonghwa wanted to say <em>they’re older than us, they have more experience, they’ve been through crushing training to get to their level</em>, but he kept quiet. While it was all true, those facts wouldn’t make them feel better, only more inadequate. He moved to another tree and placed his left hand on the bark. The energy didn’t need to be pulled, it was just drawn into his palm, and the influx of it after already taking so much was both nauseating and heady. He hesitated on taking the whole thing, but ultimately decided that it was necessary, and waited for the tell-tale crack of the tree’s death. This time blood started trickling out of his left ear, but he just reached up and wiped it away with his sleeve.</p><p>At Hongjoong’s sharp look, he just shrugged and motioned for the leader to bow his head. Seonghwa placed his right hand on the back of his neck and let the energy pour into him. The other boy let out a sign of relief.</p><p>“It’s not as good as real calories—you know of the chocolate milkshake and beef jerky kind—but my god, does it do the job.”</p><p>At that, Seonghwa had to smile. While the tree’s energy was vast and thunderous, it was old and slow, and one could compare it to drinking gallons of warm tea. He wondered what Hongjoong would think of the energy from a fox or bird: smaller by far in amount but more like a shot of espresso. They walked back to the rest of ATZ and Seonghwa shared the rest of the energy from the second tree with Jongho before Mingi and Yunho helped get him situated on Hongjoong’s back.</p><p>“We’ll follow you to the MMM base. Once you get there, don’t come back for us. Just stay with Jongho.”</p><p>Hongjoong opened his mouth in protest but when he met Seonghwa’s eyes he huffed. “Fine. I’m trusting you. But you have two days, and then I’m running out and searching for you all.”</p><p>It was Yeosang who piped up with a weary but wry smile. “No worries, Hyung, we can keep out of trouble.”</p><p>Seonghwa hoped those weren't famous last words.</p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>              Yunho and Mingi stopped short as the air in front of them seemed to refract. Like looking at a straw in a glass of water, a line at about chest-high disjointed the bottom half of the city street from the top half. It was like the whole view was flipped to two-dimensional, and the line disjointed the image as it ran across the restaurant building, the street lamp, the cars lining the street, turning 360 degrees, it cut across the trees, several passer-by residents of the urban downtown, and even the empty air in front of them.</p><p>Mingi felt his heartbeat speed up as he realized he and Yunho were trapped. Nothing outside of the staggered line moved, and all was quiet. Memories of being trapped in a sphere of darkness just before he was captured and taken to the illegal research lab so many months ago resurfaced in his mind. He reached down and grasped Yunho’s wrist.</p><p>“What is this?”</p><p>The other boy shook his head. “I don’t know. It’s…like we’re caught in a bubble or something.”</p><p>Mingi glanced at his watch nervously, it was 10:26 in the morning and they had a little over fifteen minutes to meet with their contact at a train station over a mile away. “Yunho, we’ve got to get around this—we can’t be late.”</p><p>They shifted to the right, Yunho reaching out a hand to try and touch the refracted line, when footsteps sounded, and a rough voice interrupted them.</p><p>“Oh, I wouldn’t touch it, if I were you. Might sting a bit.”</p><p>The two ATZ members turned to see a boy a few years older than them walking toward them from down the street. Nothing moved but him, and as he reached the disjointed line, he grasped it and moved it upward to duck under and join Yunho and Mingi on the inside. As the line was moved, the image outside rippled like water.</p><p>Yunho and Mingi recognized him at the same time, both stiffening before dropping into more defensive stances. But the young man just waived his hand and gave them a sunny smile.</p><p>“If I wanted to fight, I’d be out there, and you’d still be in here unable to do anything. I’m just here to talk.”</p><p>Mingi gulped. “You—you’re J-hope.”</p><p>J-hope smiled again and nodded. “I’m J-hope.”</p><p>Yunho shifted next to Mingi, relaxing but still clearly uncomfortable. “Why do you want to talk to us?”</p><p>J-hope gave a slight pout at that. “I’m sent to talk to all the rebels. So easy to catch you all off guard, you know?” He pushed down on the refracted line and sat down on it, causing it to bend and ripple the outside world again. “I’m going to give you a rundown of Bangtan’s Big Plan. You might as well sit—on the ground, not on the line. I promise I’m not going to attack you.”</p><p>Warily, they settled down. The smile J-hope gave them this time was much less friendly.</p><p>“If you’re captured by the government and try to tell anyone what I’m telling you now, they either won’t believe you and submit you to the trainee program or they’ll kill you. Best to not even mention this meeting to anyone except your team. Don’t tell other teams. I’ll handle them. We are working on a need-to-know basis, any other information is too risky to share.</p><p>“The government doesn’t have the same problem as the rebellion. There are plenty of cured lying around, some involved in politics, able to receive the medicine through their positions of power or their unending wealth. On paper, President Song may look like the perfect man for the job, but he rose to power in an extremely unethical manner.”</p><p>J-hope’s lips turned down in a grimace, and something dark in his eyes made a shiver run down Mingi’s spine. “He…has some kind of loyalty ability. It’s not just a mind controlling influence, but something emotional too that makes anyone he meets believe in his ideals and want to follow him. Its like he’s a poisonous, charismatic cult leader—one you can’t escape. Worse, the ability is able to filter through the television, or the radio, when he gives his speeches. Many are susceptible enough that even that affects their loyalty.”</p><p>The weight of J-hope’s words brought something cold and heavy to Mingi’s chest. All the soldiers in the military, all the politicians, the hero teams, the trainees that pass their debut, the citizens that meet President Song at promotional and “charity” events, and all the school children that religiously watch and listen to his weekly speeches, might all be blind devotees of the man. Propping his chin in his hand, Mingi narrowed his eyes at the Bangtan member.</p><p>“But no doubt you’ve met President Song hundreds of times. All the major hero teams must interact with him plenty. How come you’re not under his influence?”</p><p>The first genuine smile graced the older boy’s face. “Well, those with an ability that can counteract the President’s are less influenced. Our leader, RM, he’s able to mentally shield Bangtan’s seven members. It doesn’t halt the emotional reactions to the man, but as long as we can think rationally, we can see through his ploys. Wonho of Monsta X? He can read minds—kind of hard to fall for the President’s charm in that case. Velvet’s Yeri? Upon eye-contact, she knows everything about a person’s past and knows their character inside and out.”</p><p>Yunho hummed in interest. “So, some heroes are covertly working against the government? We know your teammates, Jimin and V, helped our Yeosang and Wooyoung escape from the trainee program.”</p><p>“Yes, <em>extremely</em> covertly. The President’s not the only high-ranking politician with an ability. I came with a few suggestions for ATZ,” J-hope turned his eyes on Yunho, “As the Rebel Vice President’s son, you should tell your father exactly what kind of snake President Song is, and what kind of battle he is fighting against. The rebels are severely underprepared.”</p><p>Mingi felt Yunho stiffen beside him, but before his friend could say anything, J-hope pointed at him. “And you, Mingi-ssi, you’d better get to figuring out the more intricate details of your ability—you might be the only one who can protect your team if you ever cross the President.”</p><p>Mingi felt the blood drain from his face. He couldn’t—his ability wasn’t that strong mentally. Sure, he could see his teammates on the map in his head, and he could see other people when he looked in a mirror or bowl of water, but <em>finding </em>things was all he was good for. He had no clue how to start protecting ATZ from some kind of loyalty-manipulation.</p><p>J-hope hopped off the refracted line as if leaping from a bungee cord. He watched as Mingi and Yunho stood up from the ground and gave them a considering look.</p><p>“You can call me Hoseok-hyung, I’m sure we’ll see each other again. When the line disappears, you’re free to finish whatever mission brought you here—I’ll turn a blind eye.”</p><p>With that, J-hope ducked under the line and walked back up the street before turning left into an alley and disappearing. A few moments later, it was like the line unzipped, and everything outside started moving again. Mingi looked at his watch; it still read 10:26.</p><p>He and Yunho were silent for a minute as they walked toward the train station. Something felt off, like the talk with the Bangtan hero hadn’t actually happened, like it was just a dream. Thinking about how the numbers on his watch hadn’t moved, how nothing in the outside world moved the entire time they sat in the middle of the street with J-hope, Mingi realized it was likely because it <em>didn’t</em> actually happen. He let out a sigh. “Holy crap.”</p><p>Yunho laughed, a little hysterically, but his eyes gleamed with genuine surprise and mirth. “Hoseok-hyung dumped a bucket-load of bad new on us, but that was…so cool. Who knew that freezing time worked like that? And...” His smile turned softer as he glanced at Mingi. “It’s comforting, in a way, to know that some heroes are on our side, or at least know of President Song’s manipulation.”</p><p>Mingi felt his eyes squint as he smiled back. “It’s also comforting to know that all those people who support him aren’t crazy, just being emotionally and mentally controlled.”</p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>Wooyoung felt his heart ache as he recognized the sincere regret in Yeonjun’s sad eyes. The blue-haired boy stared at him from across the room, taking slow steps toward the dais on which Wooyoung kneeled. When he stopped in front of him and looked up, Wooyoung could see his lips tremble a bit.</p><p>“I-it was part of our debut test; I didn’t know they would do this to you.”</p><p>Wooyoung’s jaw ached as he gritted his teeth and hissed out a sigh. “What did you think they’d do to a rebel? I’m a deserter and a betrayer, Yeonjun. They’re not going to let that go.”</p><p>The chains around him clinked as he grasped them to heave himself to his feet. His heart was thundering in his chest. “You told me you hated it here, you hated what they did to you and TXT. I believed you when you said you wanted to escape.”</p><p>Yeonjun’s voice was stronger when he next replied. “I didn’t lie. About any of it. Except that I know by now that none of us can leave, or escape. I have a duty, a responsibility here, and I get a chance to help people within the military. The government saved my life, the least I can do is serve them.” His face twisted into a scowl. “If the rebels would realize how childish and selfish they're being, this war would end much sooner.”</p><p>A high-pitched laugh ripped from Wooyoung’s throat. Something sharp and hot trickled down the chains, stinging his hands and the metal around the vest, causing the blonde to double over and gasp.</p><p>“You can’t honestly believe that.”</p><p>“You <em>know </em>rebels killed my family. But you’ve always been a bit insubordinate, Wooyoung, you—”</p><p>The metal door across from them clanged open. Soobin was standing with his arms crossed over his chest, and Taehyun’s mischievous face poked around the doorway.</p><p>Soobin’s voice echoed loudly as he addressed Yeonjun. “The prisoner is not allowed any visitors. If you get caught here, you’ll be punished.”</p><p>Wooyoung’s old friend just ignored his leader. His shoulders tensed as he visibly took a few deep breaths in effort to let go of his anger. He glared at his feet rather than looking up. “Say you were misguided. Plead insanity. They’ll rehabilitate you, Wooyoung, but don’t let them kill you.”</p><p>As he turned on his heel and marched away, Wooyoung lunged up and forward, letting the vest and chains take his weight as he yelled, “You’re being naïve! The government <em>bought</em> your life, they didn’t save it! Yeonjun, you asked for our help, we can—”</p><p>The door clanged shut, the loud sound of metal against metal cutting Wooyoung off. He choked on a sob as the sharp pain coursed through the chains again. He trusted Yeonjun. He wanted to help Yeonjun. He wanted to believe in their other friends, the newly formed members of TXT, save them from the abuse they had gone through as they finished their training. The ironic and ultimately frustrating thing was, Yeonjun still cared too.</p><p>Wooyoung closed his eyes and searched for himself on Mingi’s star map. But he couldn’t find it. Something about these chains, they prevented him from using his ability or accessing Mingi’s. Looking at the links, he sighed as he recognized Beomgyu’s little scribbles and scratches that instilled commands into the metal.</p><p>***</p><p>Three days to a week. That’s how long a person could survive without water. Wooyoung wondered how long it had been. His mouth was stale, his throat was parched, his eyes felt like sandpaper every time he blinked, and even the inside of his nostrils burned with dryness when he inhaled. He was also hungry. His stomach would go through phases of feeling all right, to feeling empty and starving, to cramping with hunger pains. The headache was a constant throbbing that pounded at his temples and drilled into the base of his skull. The awkward position the chains forced him into made his knees, neck and shoulders also cramp and ache. <em>I’m not going to die here </em>he told himself. ATZ was coming, there was no doubt that they would rush to free him, but he suspected the chains also prevented Mingi from locating him. Still, it wouldn’t be long now. While ATZ hadn’t lost their spontaneous edge, they were a lot more refined since their training. They tried not to make rookie mistakes.</p><p>Wooyoung let himself fall asleep with this reassurance and dreamed of dumplings dancing across the floor of his prison. Dumplings and cabbages and chicken, all trotted across his vision, and hopped into a boat. Wooyoung found himself chasing after the food, dashing to also get in the boat as it started to flow downriver. He reached out to grab a drumstick of the chicken, but it scampered away. So did the dumplings. He didn’t really want the cabbage right now; it didn’t seem filling enough. Frustrated, he looked around for some chopsticks and found that his boat was heading for a waterfall. Ah, he was falling. The water was so cool and refreshing. It felt like silk on his skin and soothed the scratchy ache in his throat and he wasn’t afraid of drowning because water this nice would never hurt him.</p><p>Wooyoung opened his eyes to an arm around his shoulders and a large cup being tilted toward his lips, water splashing out. He drank it so fast he almost choked, and then he was coughing and sputtering, and a hand was on his back, patting but not really helping. His hopes of it being one of his teammates were crushed when he realized he was still chained in that large, dark room. Looking to his left, he recognized Kai gazing at him with large eyes.</p><p>The younger boy still had an arm around Wooyoung’s shoulders, helping him lean back in the chains rather than forward, and Kai awkwardly lifted his left hand to pat his head.</p><p>“It’s been four days. I was going to bring you soup and water anyways, but your team is here.”</p><p>Warmth, excitement, and relief bloomed within Wooyoung’s chest. “They’re here? Where?”</p><p>“Somewhere on the base, sneaking in. Two are making a distraction at the western gate.” Kai brought a bowl of egg soup forward for Wooyoung to slurp, and the warm saltiness of the broth was the best thing he had ever tasted.</p><p>He felt a greasy drop spill down his chin but couldn’t care less at the moment. “They—they can’t find me…these chains stop abilities."</p><p>“I know. I’ll get you out of them but finish the soup first, it’ll be easier for you to escape if you’re able to mostly stand on your own.”</p><p>Wooyoung did feel quite dizzy and weak, and any adrenaline from the situation was slow to rush through his veins. He realized Kai was still speaking and tried to focus on his words as he sipped at more of the soup.</p><p>“—is still mad at you. But he slipped into one of Yeosang-hyung’s dreams and told him where you are.”</p><p>Giving a nod to show he was finished with the soup, Wooyoung grasped Kai’s arm. “Tell Yeonjun…I’m sorry. And…to you and the rest of TXT, I’m sorry.”</p><p>Kai grasped back and gave a small smile. “We’re sorry too. But you and Yeosang-hyung, don’t feel bad for leaving, okay? Just, please be there for us when we need you again—despite this mess, and us lying to you. We needed to pass debut, but both ATZ and TXT need friends and allies on the other side if we want to survive.”</p><p>Briefly, Wooyoung wondered if TXT had also spoken with Bangtan or any other heroes covertly opposing the government, but he shoved the dangerous thought away and didn’t say anything. Maybe it was just Kai being intuitive and perceptive.</p><p>The younger boy suddenly gripped both of Wooyoung’s forearms tighter, and he felt a strange sensation of numbness in his limbs and lightheadedness rushing through his head. He watched as Kai was careful not to touch any of the inscribed chains as he extracted Wooyoung. Once they were out and solid again, Kai helped Wooyoung down to the floor where he could lean his back against the dais. The numb and lightheaded feeling did not disappear, and Wooyoung felt like he was either going to sink through the tiles or float up to the ceiling. He ended up throwing up all the soup and water he consumed.</p><p>Kai was in front of him quickly, big eyes wide with surprise and apologies rushing from his lips. Wooyoung tried to give him a smile.</p><p>“It’s okay…I think it was just too much too soon. Kai, you should probably go soon, though. My team will know where I am now and are on their way.”</p><p>“Okay. Just, remember what I said, about allies. Please, Hyung?” He stared imploringly at Wooyoung.</p><p>This time, Wooyoung was able to muster up a real smile. “Of course. We’re already allies. Now shoo.”</p><p>Kai dissolved again into nothing, a grey outline of him the only thing to watch as he floated toward the wall and disappeared. Wooyoung closed his eyes against the nausea attacking him and let his back slide against the dais and to the right until he was lying on the floor in an L shape. He briefly considered trying to find everybody on Mingi’s star map but didn’t feel well enough.</p><p>What felt like eons later, but was probably only a few minutes, Wooyoung heard a loud tearing and crushing of the metal door as it was very destructively removed by San. Footsteps sounded louder as they drew closer.</p><p>“Wooyoung! Wooyoung, hey—oh my god, you puked. Did they poison you? Hey, look at me.”</p><p>Tearing his eyes open, Wooyoung tried to focus on San. His angular face was pale and his lips thin with worry as he grabbed the blonde under his arms and dragged him upright.</p><p>“Tell me what’s wrong right now, anything immediate?”</p><p>“No,” Wooyoung rasped. He would have cried if he’d had any tears. “It’s been four days, San.”</p><p>His teammate pulled him into a hug. “I know. We’re sorry. Did they feed you at all? Were…were you tortured?”</p><p>“I think they were going for death by dehydration, or starvation.”</p><p>Letting out a few expletives, San shifted Wooyoung so he was supported by one arm and reached under his black jacket for his water canteen. He lifted it toward Wooyoung, but suddenly Hongjoong was there, startling them both. He gently took the canteen from San and held it so Wooyoung could drink.</p><p>“Small sips, slowly.” Their leader muttered. “You’ll have to be careful, Wooyoung-ah. If you keep it down for the next ten minutes and feel all right, you can have more.”</p><p>Hongjoong studied Wooyoung briefly, and the blond gave him a shaky but reassuring smile. After ruffling his hair, Hongjoong turned to San.</p><p>“You have him?”</p><p>San nodded. “I’ll get us to the west gate.”</p><p>Hongjoong helped situate Wooyoung on San’s back before nodding. “Okay, I’ll round everybody up and head that way. Let Seonghwa give him some energy when you get there.”</p><p>Looking at the terrible chains, Wooyoung had a slight moment of panic. He desperately patted San’s arm. “Wait, wait, San. Those chains…they’ll prevent you from using your ability, but is there a way you can make it look like you got me out of them?”</p><p>San hiked them both up the dais and studied the chains. Wooyoung felt him stiffen as he touched one. The other boy hissed.</p><p>“You were in these things?!”</p><p>Wooyoung nodded his head. “Yeah. They’re miserable.”</p><p>“There don’t seem to be any scribbles around the vest.”</p><p>With a huff, San touched his fingertips to the metal and heavy fabric, and the thick bands burst in half. Finally, they turned to leave, and Wooyoung didn’t look back at the large, dark room or the dais. They wandered through the halls and outside into cool air, and Wooyoung let his head fall to rest on his arm and against San’s neck as he closed his eyes.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Yeah! Lots of other k-poppers in this chapter. It just kinda happened. It will continue to happen. This story will have a big cast.<br/>The chains/vest...think of Wonderland MV<br/>Thanks for reading :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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